Enzo's Father Is Asian?

Would you believe the latest Ferrari wondercar by Pininfarina is the brainchild of a well-traveled Japanese-born designer?

November 2002
By
WALLACE A. WYSS

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The automotive design world is a cloistered one. It is not often that a working-stiff designer gets any credit for a new car. If any name gets mentioned at a new model's unveiling, it's usually the design director's.

But wait a minute. About five months before the new Ferrari Enzo Ferrari—designed by the glamorous Pininfarina shop—made its official première at the Paris auto show, there was a public viewing of the life-size mock-up—in an art museum in Tokyo. And there to take the kudos was a 48-year-old Japanese-born designer, Ken Okuyama.

A Japanese designed this most exotic of all Italian cars? What next?

Not so surprising when you look at the career path of Okuyama, who is now chairman of the Transportation Design Department at his alma mater, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. So intent was Okuyama on having a design career not limited to Japan that he came to Los Angeles in the early '80s after graduating from Musashino Art University, hired a language coach to hone his English, and was accepted by the prestigious design college.

Okuyama remembers a life-defining moment there. He was participating in an Art Center design competition judged by a guest, who happened to be Sergio Pininfarina (chairman of the board of the Italian firm founded by his father). "I was invited to meet him," Okuyama recalls. "As soon as I shook his hand, I knew that this was the man I was going to work for."

But that was a ways off. After graduation, he was snapped up by GM design chief Chuck Jordan. He left GM several years later, hopscotching to Porsche, where he participated in the Boxster and 911 designs, then went back to GM (and Opel of Europe). In August 1995 he got every car enthusiast's dream job—designer at Pininfarina, where he penned such prototypes as an urban car called the Metrocubo (which he describes as "the automotive answer to the iMac"), the Peugeot Nautilus, and production cars such as the Alfa 147, and two cars still upcoming—an Alfa spider and the latest Maserati Quattroporte. And his language portfolio soon included German and Italian.

But as an enthusiast, his twin peaks, so to speak, have to be his three Ferraris. But wait—aren't Ferraris designed exclusively by Italians? Mostly, yes. In recent decades, this most Italian of supercars had been the jealously guarded preserve of Italian-born designers.

Okuyama's first Ferrari, the Rossa, was a one-off (built on a 550 chassis) to celebrate an anniversary at Pininfarina. In a recent Art Center speech, perhaps unaware any press were present, Okuyama revealed he "dashed off the design in two weekends" because "as a one-off, it wouldn't be making any money for us."

His second Ferrari was a mere update of an existing model, the 456M. His third—the Enzo—is the mind-bender, and it sent a shock wave through the industry—not because of its speed (officially 219 mph) but because of its artful use of Formula 1-style aerodynamic tricks, such as underbody diffusers and an elaborate system that controls airflow under the car using movable flaps near the nose to create downforce. The industry hasn't seen anything this slick since the million-dollar, 240-mph McLaren F1.

Okuyama recently offered some insight into Italian design:

On the design process at Pininfarina: "When I was working there, we would have an internal design competition. The winner of the competition then got to have his design built full-size, while the others on the design team sat around and drank espresso until they were needed. No one interfered with the car until the lead designer was done with the full-size mock-up."

On the wingless Enzo: "Early on, once we got to the full-size model, we decided to have no free-standing wing as we did on the F40 and F50. With the [aerodynamic] work we did underneath, we knew we wouldn't need it."

On the controversial "beak" nose: "The F1-style peak in the hood center got more or less prominent depending on how the F1 team did the weekend before," he joked. In fact, the beak had to stay—"It's used in conjunction with other aero aids to add to the downforce."

On the competition: "We didn't bring in a McLaren F1 or any other road car for comparison purposes. Ferrari, with 2000 people, is a company that's very focused. They know exactly what they want."

On why there is no traditional manual shifter: "Ferrari's F1 car wins with a paddle shifter. You can shift faster with a paddle shifter than a floor shifter."

On his multiemployer, multicountry career: "I have a plan. Every place I moved was part of my plan."

On fame: "Up until the time I was 35 or 40, I would have chosen a job that would make me famous as opposed to one with good job security, because when you're famous, you can get everything else."

Curious as to what the Italians thought about this, we caught up with Lorenzo Ramaciotti, CEO of Pininfarina's R&D division and Okuyama's former boss. Had Okuyama's taking credit for the design—even before the car had made its official debut—caused a furor at Pininfarina? "Was he tooting his own horn?" we asked.

Ramaciotti frowned. "Things are changing," he said. "There is more interest in the people who do these things. It's not a formal position of Pininfarina, but we don't mind. It's more and more that people get credit for their work."

With his whirlwind schedule, Okuyama seems more determined than past Art Center Transportation Design chairmen—who were retired from the industry—to keep his oar in the industry water as a consultant. Even Ramaciotti said of Okuyama, "We still communicate."

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